Judge Orders Islamic Fund-Raiser Deported

By JOHN M. BRODER

Published: February 9, 2005

A federal immigration judge on Tuesday ordered a former fund-raiser for a prominent Islamic charity to be deported, saying his activities posed a threat to national security.

The judge found that the man, Abdel Jabber Hamdan, who has lived in Orange County for more than 20 years, knew or should have known that the money he raised for the Holy Land Foundation was being used to support terrorism. The government contends that the foundation has funneled more than $12 million to Hamas and other Palestinian organizations that the United States considers sponsors of terrorism.

The immigration judge, D.D. Sitgraves, ordered Mr. Hamdan, 44, who has been in custody since last summer, deported. But Judge Sitgraves said he could not be sent to Jordan, where he was born in a Palestinian refugee camp, because he would be at risk of torture by the Jordanian government because he has been accused by the American authorities of terror-related activities.

Mr. Hamdan's lawyer, Marc Van Der Hout, said he was likely to appeal the deportation order, saying the government had not proven that Mr. Hamdan had knowingly aided terrorists.

But Mr. Van Der Hout expressed gratitude that Judge Sitgraves had recognized the risk of sending Mr. Hamdan back to Jordan.

''We are happy Mr. Hamdan has been granted at least temporary protection from being returned to Jordan,'' he said, ''as it is clear his life would be in grave danger there.''

Federal officials shut down the Holy Land Foundation and confiscated its assets shortly after the September 2001 terrorist attacks. The principal officers of the foundation, which was based in Dallas and was once the largest Islamic charity in the United States, were arrested last summer on terrorism-related charges. The judge in that case ordered the men released on their own recognizance, saying the government had not proved that they were a national security risk.

Mr. Hamdan was picked up as part of the same investigation, but was never charged with a crime. He was instead locked up in a Department of Homeland Security immigration jail in Los Angeles last August on charges of violating the terms of his student visa granted 25 years ago. He has lived in the United States continuously since 1983 and has a wife and six children living here.

He served openly as the Southern California fund-raiser for the Holy Land Foundation in the 1990's and was active in a mosque. He and others associated with the charity said it raised money for hospitals, housing and orphanages for Palestinians living in Israel and did not knowingly funnel money to Hamas or other terrorist groups.

In its case against him, federal officials produced videotapes of meetings Mr. Hamdan attended that included members of Hamas and other anti-Israel Palestinians. Mr. Hamdan said he never condoned violence and had no say in how the money he raised for the Holy Land Foundation was spent.

Mr. Hamdan's eldest daughter, Yaman, 20, said on Tuesday that she believed that the government was pursuing the deportation order as a way to pressure her father.

''They're trying to get him to talk about the H.L.F., even though he doesn't have that information,'' said Ms. Hamdan, a pre-law student at Chapman University in Orange, Calif. ''They're holding him on a visa violation that's more than 20 years old because they want him to provide the evidence against the others.''

William B. Odencrantz, a senior lawyer at the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said he was pleased with Judge Sitgraves's order, although he said the government might appeal her ruling that Mr. Hamdan not be returned to Jordan.

''We're pleased the evidence we presented convinced the judge that Hamdan knew or should have known that the money he was raising as a paid employee of the Holy Land Foundation was destined for a terrorist organization that engages in atrocities and human rights violations such as suicide bombings and killing innocent people,'' Mr. Odencrantz said.

Photo: Rawan Hamdan, 16, and her brother Layth, 13, supporting their father. (Photo by Monica Almeida/The New York Times)